https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/grainger/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Percy+Aldridge+Grainger+%28composer%29&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle&output=atom <![CDATA[Grainger Museum Online]]> 2024-03-29T20:53:23+11:00 Omeka https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/grainger/items/show/403 <![CDATA[‘No. 3 Pastoral’, from In a Nutshell Suite, part for Staff Bells, 1908-1916]]>
When performed in New York in 1917, after a season of performances across major cities in North America, In a Nutshell Suite was described by one critic as “the most interesting musical novelty of the season, with audiences everywhere ‘delighted by its vivacious tunefulness and astounded at its audacious novel features”. Some critics were more cautious. One suggested that Grainger was “excercising his sense of humour” with music consisting of “discordant shriekings punctuated by rhythmical whacks”. A St Louis newspaper described the performance of the Suite as “the last cry in vaudeville”.
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2019-05-24T13:51:53+10:00

Dublin Core

Title

‘No. 3 Pastoral’, from In a Nutshell Suite, part for Staff Bells, 1908-1916

Description

In a Nutshell Suite was first performed at the Norfolk Festival of Music, Connecticut, USA, on 9 June 1916. This suite contains some of Grainger’s best scoring for ‘tuneful percussion’. Grainger was unusually prescriptive about the type of mallets (or ‘beaters’) performers were to use, indicating ‘hard’ (‘wood or rubber mallets’), ‘medium’ (‘wooden mallets thinly covered with wool or leather’) and ‘soft’ (‘wooden mallets thickly covered with wool or other soft material’) at different points in different instruments. This was to ensure distinct and varied tonalities.

When performed in New York in 1917, after a season of performances across major cities in North America, In a Nutshell Suite was described by one critic as “the most interesting musical novelty of the season, with audiences everywhere ‘delighted by its vivacious tunefulness and astounded at its audacious novel features”. Some critics were more cautious. One suggested that Grainger was “excercising his sense of humour” with music consisting of “discordant shriekings punctuated by rhythmical whacks”. A St Louis newspaper described the performance of the Suite as “the last cry in vaudeville”.

Source

Grainger Museum Collection

Date

1916

Identifier

SLI MG 3/41-2-2:19
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https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/grainger/items/show/404 <![CDATA[‘Norse Dirge’, from Youthful Suite, parts for Musical glasses, wooden marimba, metal marimba or vibraharp, 1945]]> 2019-05-24T13:51:53+10:00

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Title

‘Norse Dirge’, from Youthful Suite, parts for Musical glasses, wooden marimba, metal marimba or vibraharp, 1945

Description

Ten players were required to perform the percussion parts for ‘Norse Dirge’, across the variety of instruments, including some of the musical glasses (seen in the display case). Unlike in Tribute to Foster, where the choir played the musical glasses and string players bowed the metal marimba bars, in ‘Norse Dirge’ the players of the percussion section are responsible for all of these elements.

Source

Grainger Museum Collection

Date

1945

Identifier

SL1 MG9/40-5-1:15
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https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/grainger/items/show/402 <![CDATA[Eastern Intermezzo for tuneful percussion, Metal Marimba & Tubular Chimes part, 1898/99, 1933]]>
Grainger first heard non-Western music in Chinatown in central Melbourne when he was a child. One of his earliest compositions, Eastern Intermezzo, written for small orchestra in 1898/89, was an attempt to capture this exotic sound. In 1933 Grainger arranged Eastern Intermezzo for a ‘tuneful percussion’ group of over 20 players. It was broadcast as a musical illustration during Grainger’s ABC Radio Lecture No.11, ‘Tuneful Percussion’, in January 1935, thus introducing the range and possibilities of the exclusively percussive ensemble to an Australian radio audience.
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2019-05-24T13:51:53+10:00

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Title

Eastern Intermezzo for tuneful percussion, Metal Marimba & Tubular Chimes part, 1898/99, 1933

Description

Grainger first saw Indonesian instruments, including a Balinese gong, at the home of a wealthy collector in England. In 1912, while on tour in Europe, he was captivated by the Indonesian percussion instruments he saw in the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden.

Grainger first heard non-Western music in Chinatown in central Melbourne when he was a child. One of his earliest compositions, Eastern Intermezzo, written for small orchestra in 1898/89, was an attempt to capture this exotic sound. In 1933 Grainger arranged Eastern Intermezzo for a ‘tuneful percussion’ group of over 20 players. It was broadcast as a musical illustration during Grainger’s ABC Radio Lecture No.11, ‘Tuneful Percussion’, in January 1935, thus introducing the range and possibilities of the exclusively percussive ensemble to an Australian radio audience.

Source

Grainger Museum Collection

Date

1933

Identifier

MG3/18-2:1
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https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/grainger/items/show/405 <![CDATA[Tribute to Foster, part for mixed chorus, 7 February 1931]]> 2019-05-24T13:51:53+10:00

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Title

Tribute to Foster, part for mixed chorus, 7 February 1931

Description

Audiences were fascinated and amused and sometimes bemused by the novelty and adventurous nature of Grainger’s orchestration in performances of his radical compositions. The Brisbane Courier-Mail observed, after a concert in October 1934, how “Novelties and humour intrigued the audience...but whether it all commended itself to the auditors is another matter. One sensed that the reactions were not always of the utmost pleasure, but...there was not a little that could be enjoyed for its own intrinsic merit or sheer beauty.” Tribute to Foster provided some light relief, the newspaper noting, “it was a felicitous experience to hear the soloists and a large choral group from the Brisbane Austral Choir, with the utmost seriousness of purpose, uniting in this example of modern choral music. Those who are ordinarily to be seen in public performance comporting themselves as earnest musicians engrossed in conventional music, on this occasion cheerfully devoted themselves to weird and wonderful effects ...”

Source

Grainger Museum Collection

Date

1931

Identifier

SL1 MG3:94-1
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